Clinton Defends Husband’s Tact, Adding That Democrats Should Take a Hint

[kurth]

September 27, 2006
Clinton Defends Husband’s Tact, Adding That All Democrats Should Take a Hint
By RAYMOND HERNANDEZ

WASHINGTON — The war of words between the Bush administration and the Clintons intensified on Tuesday as Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton suggested that her husband would have reacted differently as president if he had heard the same warnings about Osama bin Laden’s plans that President Bush had access to before 9/11. In unusually blunt terms, Senator Clinton questioned the current administration’s response to an intelligence briefing President Bush received about a month before the 9/11 attacks. It mentioned that Al Qaeda was intent on striking the United States using hijacked planes. “I’m certain that if my husband and his national security team had been shown a classified report entitled ‘Bin Laden Determined to Attack Inside the United States,’ he would have taken it more seriously than history suggests it was taken by our current president and his national security team,” she said during an appearance on Capitol Hill.

The comments by Senator Clinton ratcheted up an already bitter exchange of charges between the Bush and Clinton camps over how the two administrations responded to the threat posed by Al Qaeda before the attacks, which occurred nearly eight months into the Bush presidency. In her remarks, Senator Clinton also suggested that Bill Clinton’s animated defense of his own national security record as president, delivered only a few days earlier, provided a powerful example for Democrats, whom Republicans have sought to portray in recent national elections as too weak to lead the country in such perilous times. “I think my husband did a great job in demonstrating that Democrats are not going to take these attacks,” she said...

The Republican National Committee mocked Senator Clinton’s defense of her husband’s administration. “For Mrs. Clinton to insinuate that the same administration that repeatedly missed opportunities to stop bin Laden would be better equipped to protect America is absurd,” said Tracey Schmitt, a spokeswoman for the committee.

But Philippe Reines, a spokesman for Senator Clinton, noted that the 9/11 Commission Report found that after President Clinton received intelligence warnings in 1998, he immediately mobilized his National Security Council, the C.I.A. and the F.B.I. while also increasing security and putting airports and airlines on high alert. By contrast, he said, the commission found no indication of any further discussion before Sept. 11 among President Bush and his top advisers of the possibility of a threat of an attack by Al Qaeda in the United States, even after Mr. Bush received an August 2001 briefing that Mr. bin Laden intended to attack inside the United States. “President Clinton saw the warnings and took action,’’ Mr. Reines said. “President Bush saw the warnings and took no action.’’...

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/27/nyregion/27hillary.html

[madfloridian]

1. There's a heated discussion on this going on in GD Politics.

It is causing anger because many Democrats have been speaking up already, a lot of them... a whole hell of a lot of them.

For a long time.

[ecstatic]

7. true, but the popular ones that get airtime haven't been as vocal

It's only the ones who the media doesn't cover, ie Kucinich.

[madfloridian]

10. Just from this month alone....

Dean on MSNBC with David Gregory on the Countdown to 2006. Sept. 6
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTHd-W2F5rU

Dean on CNN with Harris on Sept. 6. Election discussion.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uANGYL_dbkM

Howard Dean, first time on Countdown with Olbermann Sept. 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ipr2UApRCY8

Howard Dean on Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace, in studio.
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2006/09/10/howard-dean-breezes-through-chris-wallace-interview/

[Crankie Avalon]

2. Good for her...totally with her on this one. eom

[madfloridian]

4. I disagree. Others have been speaking out loudly.

Very loudly. For several years.

[liberal N proud]

3. Thank you Hillary, YES Democrats Should Take a Hint

[lyonn]

5. Bush also told someone from intelligence "Ok, you have covered

you ass" when he was told for the 2nd time of a possible attack on the U.S. What a guy, he had and still has a low opinion of all the "regular" intel agencies. He prefers his little bad of yes men.

[madfloridian]

6. This statement...

"“Their policies are failing, our military is breaking and the American people are demanding a change,” she said. “The administration has lost focus on winning the war on Iraq, and all Washington Republicans can focus on is winning elections here at home.”

Others HAVE been saying this.

In fact I feel inspired to do some searching and organizing of all the times it has been said.

And this:

"In her remarks, Senator Clinton also suggested that Bill Clinton’s animated defense of his own national security record as president, delivered only a few days earlier, provided a powerful example for Democrats, whom Republicans have sought to portray in recent national elections as too weak to lead the country in such perilous times.

“I think my husband did a great job in demonstrating that Democrats are not going to take these attacks,” she said."

Other Democrats HAVE been saying those things for ages.

[alternativethot]

8. Yes, others have been loud for a while...

...but it helps to have big names do it too. I think the point is that people like Clinton have had the perception of being 'moderate' and going with the flow for a long time now.

[madfloridian]

9. The moderate stuff gets me...the perception thereof.

Only the ones who are perceived as moderate make a difference?

A lot of us who loved what Clinton did as president think others have spoken out enough to make it easy for him to step in now, and not nearly as uncomfortable. The road was paved for him.